Down by five goals with 40 minutes to go in their two-game total-goal series with Red Bull Salzburg, Luleå Hockey staged an improbable comeback. Afterward, centre Niklas Fogström and goaltender Joel Lassinantti gave their accounts of how the game progressed.
by Derek O'Brien – interviews by Markus Tervamäki, translated by Efraim Larsson
The second legs of the eighth-finals provided a lot of drama for hockey fans, and nowhere was that drama more improbable than in Salzburg. There, Luleå Hockey came from behind and won in a tie-breaking shootout to advance to the quarter-finals. What made the drama so improbable was the fact that, with 40 minutes to go, it looked like the outcome was well in hand.
After winning 4–2 in Luleå in the first game, Red Bull Salzburg were in good shape coming home, and in even better shape when they scored three goals in the first 10:43 to take a five-goal lead on aggregate.
“I don't think anything was happening for us in the beginning and Salzburg started the game way better than us,” said Luleå forward Niklas Fogström, who scored two of his team's goals during regulation time and the shootout-winner as well. “It felt like the flow they had continued from the first game, where every bounce was with them.”
After seeing his team give up a shorthanded goal that resulted in Kyle Beach's second goal of the game, Luleå head coach Joakim Fagervall had had enough and lifted starting goaltender Daniel Larsson in favour of Joel Lassinantti.
“There’s not that much to worry about, actually. You don’t have that much to lose, so it’s just getting out there and doing your thing,” Lassinantti said about being called upon to enter the game with his team struggling. As for what he'd seen from the bench at the start, he said, “I think we fumbled way too much with the puck and gave them a couple of turnovers that ended up in our net. But we managed to improve the defence in the second period and kept it pretty solid for the rest of the game.”
Despite improved defence, 31 shots still got through to Lassinantti the rest of the game and he stopped 29 of them. However, Luleå still faced a huge uphill climb on the offensive side of things and it was Fogström that got things going at 14:31.
“Myself, I think it was a very important goal that gave us a little confidence and some hope that we could rely on while we were working our way back into the game,” Fogström said.
Still, Salzburg got that goal back and led 4–1 after one period, and 8–3 overall. However, while Luleå certainly weren't happy with the way they started the game, there was no sense of quit in the team in the dressing room.
Fogström said that “We mostly discussed our terrible defence and that we had huge problems taking away their guys in front of our goalie, and they were dangerous in the slot. But I think we managed to solve it and in the second and third periods I think we were the better team.”
“We never stopped believe in ourselves and before the second we said that we would go out and play like we didn’t have anything to lose,” Lassinantti recalled. “I think we all agreed that it wasn’t Salzburg that was the better team, more likely that we were really bad in the first. How funny it must sound that we felt that we had them close enough even though we were down 4–1 in the game and 8–3 in total in the series.”
It would have sounded funny at the time, perhaps, but in retrospect the Luleå team must have believed in itself to pull off what it did the rest of the way, particularly in the second period.
“All of a sudden we had the flow with us, where the bounces went our way and every shot went in,” said Fogström, who scored the third goal of the period – his second of the game. His goal demonstrated how the direction of the bounces had changed.
“I just dumped it in on goal and somehow it found its way into the net,” he described with a laugh. “To be honest I have no idea of how it went in, but sometimes you score those goals as well.”
It's not exactly true that every shot went in, but Luleå did suddenly score four goals in a span of 8:24 to finally solve Niko Hovinen, who had been nearly impenetrable previously. After stopping of 43 of the 46 shots he faced in the first four periods of this series, Hovinen was beaten on five of 18 in the second period of game two, finally being pulled after Daniel Zaar's goal in the last minute of the period.
After that wild period the aggregate score was tied, and the teams exchanged goals in the third period. But first Lassinantti was called upon to make a couple of big saves.
“I had a double save on a dangerous rebound somewhere in the game, but the save I’m most proud of was one at the beginning of the third period when they made a pass close to the goal and forced me to move post-to-post,” the goalie explained. “Both the crowd and the player that shot it thought the puck went in and I didn’t really know where the puck ended up, so it was a really good feeling when I figured out I made the save.”
With the aggregate score still tied, Zaar's second of the game gave his team its first lead of the series just about midway through the final full frame. But just when it seemed Lulea had things under control, Kristian Näkyvä was penalized for tripping with 2:35 of the clock and Salzburg pulled their goalie, giving them a 6-on-4 numerical advantage. Thomas Raffl, who had opened the scoring back in the third minute, deflected a shot through a crowd in front of the net, sending the series to overtime.
“Yeah, I never actually saw the puck when he dumped it on the net and I also think there was a tip-in,” said Lassinantti. “We had the chance to advance in regulation time, so at that time it felt a bit frustrating.”
“We had the chance to win in regulation, but a little bad discipline in the end gave them a power play which they took advantage of, and that’s stuff that happens,” shrugged Fogström. “But luckily we managed to win in the shootout.”
Indeed, after a scoreless 10-minute overtime period, in which Luleå out-shot Salzburg 5–2, the series was decided in a shootout. The first five shots were stopped by Lassinantti and Salzburg's Bernd Bruckler, but then Fogström skated out as Luleå's third shooter.
“I had a plan and idea of what I wanted to do and I actually had pretty good self-confidence at that time, and when I saw that I managed to put the puck in the net it was a relief.”
Fogström's goal was followed by one by Johan Forsberg to end the game, as Lassinantti stopped all Salzburg shooters he faced.
“I tried to out-wait their players as much as possible,” the goalie said of his shootout strategy. “I knew that (former Luleå forward) Konstantin Komarek is a sneaky guy that tries a lot of different moves and when I managed to save both his and the second shooter (Raffl, who also tried some moves), I thought the third guy (Ryan Duncan) would try something different, so I expected him to shoot. It felt so good the make the saves and give my teammates a chance to win it, because I think we deserved to win the game despite our terrible first period.”
After their improbable comeback victory, Luleå are now off to the quarter-finals where they will face a familiar foe. Luleå and Lukko Rauma were both in Group K and each beat each other once at home while winning their other four games to finish tied atop the group. It should be another series that goes right down to the end and Luleå know for sure they're up against a stiff opponent.
“Lukko is for sure a good team and they’re in the top of the Finnish Liiga, so we've really got to step up our game and play much better than we did in at least the first game against Salzburg,” said Fogström. “If we play like we did in the second game we have a great chance, I think.”
WATCH the video interview with Niklas Fogström at LuleaHockey.se here.
WATCH the video interview with Joel Lassinantti at LuleaHockey.se here.